Honored Teammate Lorraine Anderson

Lorraine, aka Grandma Raine, is my honored teammate. Lorraine came into my life when I was about 8 years old and has been a part of our lives for the past twenty-plus years. My own grandmother passed away when I was 4 so Lorraine is the only grandmother I've really known.

Lorraine was diagnosed with multiple myeloma eight years ago. She has been through countless rounds of chemo and radiation. She is a fighter and I believe has done her own marathon several times over. I am constantly impressed by her strength and determination.

We recently got fantastic news that Lorraine's cancer is in remission! Let's hope it stays that way forever!!! She has been in and out of remission ever since she was diagnosed.

Last year, when I trained with Team In Training for the first time, Lorraine wrote me this note that still touches me each time I read it:

Dear Jennifer,

Your e-mail has touched me in so many ways. I'd be so proud of you & your running accomplishments regardless of the cause. The fact that you are running in my honor & doing so to help me and others battle cancer makes this much more than an athletic feat. You make me so proud of your strength and commitment that it adds to my own. We will be sending a donation shortly and hopefully, more in the future.

Love, GrandmaRaine

She is proud of ME? In my mind, she is the one that we should all be proud of, not the other way around.

Sabino Canyon

This weekend we ran at Sabino Canyon. Even though the runs at Sabino are harder (3.7 miles of uphill and then 3.7 miles of downhill), it great to run in the middle of our beautiful desert! The scenery at Sabino makes the extra work worth it. I am looking forward to later in the summer when the mountain stream is running again and we get to run through the nice cool water several times. Running with wet shoes and socks can be a bit of a departure from normal but the cold/cool water definitely helps keep you cool. Maybe it's time to go do a rain dance to get those monsoon storms to visit Tucson and bring our desert some much needed rain :-)



And a reminder of the reason we run - to bring an end to cancer! Your tax-deductible donation can help! We are over 15% of our way to our goal of raising $5000 but every penny, nickle, dime, dollar, fifty-dollars, hundred-dollars helps!



Please help save lives http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf09/jwellborn

Running is a drug

Running is a drug. Kinda. You get a lot of the same effects from running that people get from using drugs. So running is my "drug of choice."

I found this article on CNN today about a guy that was a 20-yr addict that couldn't kick the habit until he found running and triathlons. Now he's clean and he's done an Iron Man event! An Iron Man is 2.4 miles of swimming, a 112-mile bike ride AND a 26.2 mile (a.k.a. marathon) run. Nuts!

Tomorrow is our third group run! I am excited for the 6:30am start since it should be cooler than our runs the last couple weeks. And I get to see the other "addicts."

And I am still totally psyched that "Grandma Raine" is in REMISSION!!! She still has 3 months of chemo left but we love, love, love the word remission!

Please help find a cure for cancer. Make a donation at http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf09/jwellborn

Update on the head shaving: $195 with "keep it" in the lead. We've got a long way to go to get to $5000 by July 31st. Please help.

On the good news front...

A quote from my Aunt Kathy, regarding Grandma Raine's health:
"GOOD NEWS!! Mom has been on the new chemotherapy for 3 months now and the results are good! It's working and the marker that the doctor looks at (M or T spike) is down 60% and her proteins are down 50%. Woo-hoo!! Her chemo doctor wants her to have another 3 months of treatment to assure that she remains in remission. The chemo is very hard on her but it is saving her life."

Let's keep the good news coming!

Won't you help save lives? Make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymhoma Society at http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/nikesf09/jwellborn